To think that I shouldn't be made to feel guilty for driving on the school run?

[DSM]

Some people have to drive their children to school, I am one of them.

AIBU to feel put out at the constant letters home and remarks from other parents/teachers about driving to school? To the point where last week I was given a very hard time for not signing the petition to stop parents driving to school?

As much as I agree that walking to school is a great benefit for children, the campaigners really should consider that its not a viable option for everyone.

Crabapple
Where we live, walking a teenager to school would be seen as abnormal. Even my 9 year old walks himself...

Yes, surely most teenagers wouldn't be seen dead walking to school with their parents, they would want to walk with their friends. Most children seem to walk without parents from 9 or 10 if they live fairly close to the school.

We are driving to school atm, having recently moved. DS1 is changing next year to the closer school.

However I am back at work from January and will be picking him up in the car (DH will walk him there.

I don't actually give a fuck what the school thinks about this. We will make our arrangements to get everyone where they need to be in the most efficient manner.

Dd has 5 bags some days, seriously? My dd is only 9 months and I am already panicking about school. She has 5 bags!!! How? Why? Is the school insane?
Getting very worried.

FredFredGeorge - are you genuinely suggesting I can walk 3 miles in 15 minutes? Because I am telling you now, as a fit and healthy 30 year old, that I categorically cannot. Absolute nonsense.

And I do have a bike, but cycling would take me far longer than 15 minutes. And the last mile is up a very steep hill, but even coming home I couldn't cycle it in 15 minutes.

And how are young children supposed to cycle 3 miles in 15 minutes?

WSWBSWH - She has lots of activities so on the one day she'll have swimming bag, homework back, ballet bag, lunch bag and bobbin lace bag!

Other days she has yoga + lunch + swimming + homework, or recorder + pe + lunch + homework or football + swimming + homework. Also a blazer and cagoule. Then I'd have my laptop bag and maybe a folder of work papers.

I'm knackered just thinking about it

Thanks BAHB

How do schools expect kids to walk to school and carry all that? If you can you should walk but how do you walk 1 mile with 5 bags?

It's the parents that end up carrying the bags. You need to bring a younger child in a buggy with you, then you can hangschool bags on the handles as well as the coats which they take off halfway down the road.:)

halycondays The 3 miles was the given distance from the school to the work, it was less than 1mile from home to the school which would be the part the children would be walking - with the parent pushing their bike. And I'm surprised anyone who can walk a mile in a reasonable time, cannot cycle 3 miles in 15 minutes. 12mph is quite a gentle pace, quite similar to an average walking effort for a mile and if you can't do it now, the added exercise would certainly be very beneficial for you. Obviously a steep hill would change that. But it's getting to sound like quite a peculiar set of circumstances that are just created to justify needing to drive.

Fredfredgeorge - I am telling you now that I cannot cycle from DS school to work - 3 miles - in 15 minutes. Regardless of the steep hill. 12mph is all very well, but there are traffic, lights etc to consider. Given that it takes me the full 15 minutes to drive, I'm sure you can believe that it's not possible in 15 minutes to cycle.

It's not a peculiar set of circumstances. It's simply too far to walk/cycle in the timeframe I have.

DSM - I cycle to work, its 6.5 miles and takes me 30 minutes - but - I cycle pretty fast (going about 15-20mph whilst actually cycling) but due to lights, traffic etc I get slowed down, so I can completely see your point about 3 miles in 15 minutes being not on. Also, of course, I'm usually a sweaty mess by the time I get to work so need extra time on arrival to actually get changed/clean ready for work :) So, YANBU :)

Tbh my DCs have always walked to school and no-one really gives a shit one way or another. No-ones given us a anything other than a crappy little certificate once in a while.

DSM No, the fact it takes 15minutes to drive due to traffic and traffic lights etc. makes me think even more than cycling is viable, cycles are much less impacted by cars, and if the average speed of a car is only 12mph, then cycling should be a very viable option. A 3mile journey where I am will almost always be quicker by bike - especially as there's no time needed for parking outside of the school. And if it takes you 15 minutesnormally you must often be arriving at work past 9 when the traffic is bad so you already have some flexibility there?

Okay, you're not fit enough to do it, any averagely fit person should be able to do that quite comfortably though so whilst you may not be able to do it now, you should easily be able to get to a stage where you can. Perhaps a little more activity is needed in your life?

We all cycle! I have a basket on my bike for bags etc and the children are all on their bikes.
it's fun, keeps us fit and is safe.

Well, apart from the unfit and lazy parents who live closer than us but squeeze past us in their cars and park up the kerb.

It is not your business if someone drives to school. It is your business if someone runs over a kid obvioulsy and bad parking is not on. But it is noone's business how one chooses to get one's child to school. '

Actually it is everyones business as we all have to breathe in the pollution your cars pump out and risk our children next to busy roads full of cars. So yes, its everyones business.

Fredfredgeorge is right. Under 5 miles in a town or city a bicycle is faster. 3 miles is nothing. Im still astounded people think walking a mile is too hard. 21st century humans really are ab unch of wimps!

Actually Kal, many of the people driving are off to work to support the economy and pay taxes which can then be used to fund cycle-to-school initiatives as if schools don't have anything else to worry about.

I am all for walking. When we lived a 20 min walk away and were not both working, we walked. Now I commute to another town and drop the children on my way (and no, there isn't any public transport unless I drove back into town and got the train, arriving at work at about 11.30am).

Fine to encourage walking, not fine to be sanctimonous about it.

"... Under 5 miles in a town or city a bicycle is faster ..."

Which town do you live in? Must be a traffic nightmare. Not all towns are the same you know.

I can be at my destination 3 or 5 miles away in my car before a cyclist has even covered half a mile.

Fredfredgeorge - it's comments like yours that this thread was all about. I am sick of sanctimonious interferers trying to convince me that I am wrong, and obviously I don't know my own journey well enough to know the quickest way to take my son to school and then get to work.

I drive, it takes 15 minutes. I very occasionally arrive after 9am, but never to memory more than a couple of minutes. I don't have the 'luxury' of flexibility, if I am late then I have staff members standing outside waiting to get in. Not very professional, not ideal.

I don't have to find parking outside the school, I pull in on the main road and DS gets out the car and walks the rest of the way. It takes under a minute, every time.

I have to park and feed a meter outside work, but I would have to stop and chain up a bike so this would save no time. It also costs me a fortune in parking every day ao believe me, if the cycling option was viable, I would be doing it.

I cannot cycle 2 miles flat and one mile up a very steep hill in 15 minutes. I am averagely fit, and thank you for your concern but I live a very active existence and don't feel the need to 'get to a stage where I can' mange an unfeasible task. I am on my feet for at least 8 hours a day at work, and as there is no provision for me to be able to clean myself up after what would be a very sweaty ride to work, I don't think I am wrong in my decision that cycling isn't the right option for me.

Please stop trying to convince me that you know better.

Can't you have "Unpressured conversation, or just quiet company'' in a car?

I'm not really bothered if people drive their kids to school but I think road (and pavement!) safety could be massively improved for people walking to school and in the immediate vicinity of schools. I think traffic wardens patrolling the roads and pavements outside the schools, speed limits and lollipop ladies (not every area has them, ours doesn't).

I think its a basic given that kids should be able to get to school safely, whatever way they choose to do it, the incidents of kids getting knocked down or parents and children being bumped on pavements is really not acceptable. Sorry OP, this is not really your point, but I don't think the school petitioning people not to drive is the way forward. I think its the council that should be spending more on road safety around schools.

Dipdap I agree with you. But I think the way to do it is not to endlessly have walk-to-school weeks and make the children feel bad, but to accept that many parents do drive for a number of reasons (laziness, convenience, on way to work) and then plan around that. So, walking buses, or even actual school buses, which would be ideal in our town in which probably half the students are too far away to walk. That would reduce the need for individual parents to be driving individual cars.

But that's structural stuff and the LA would much rather plough their money (what's left of it) into lecturing parents going to work.

Five bags on a bike - no problem. My DD has a basket on the front and a frame on the back - swallows up two dance kits, school games kit, lunch bag, school bag and art folder.

Problem is, if fewer people drive and there are fewer cars on the road at school run time and it's easier to park, more people will start to drive. It's human nature to want the quickest, easiest option without inconveniencing yourself in any way. It takes some effort to not simply do the easiest option and what ultimately might be best for your DCs. It may be that the OP can't shift her work arrival time to allow a walk to school now and again, but there are plenty of people who could do things differently but simply can't be bothered.

. . . and Violet confirms my point.